On Being a Vessel

by Miranda on September 15, 2009

A beautiful and interesting post on motherhood and creativity at WishStudio from guest blogger Suzanne Sperl. An excerpt:

i believe somewhere i read a quote from goldie hawn in which she referred to motherhood as being a vessel for your children to pass through — both literally and figuratively. being on the cusp of the birth of our second child, i can see the wisdom in her words. our children are separate of us the moment they greet this world. our job as mothers is to nurture, guide, teach, listen, and expose them to the beauty and wonders of this world — but they will always experience this in their own unique and individual ways.

as i started thinking about this, i realized creativity too passes through us in much the very same way. some seedling of an idea, a thought, a poem, photograph or painting begins within us but quickly becomes much bigger than us and we must ‘birth’ those ideas into reality — but they are never truly our own nor do we control them. they are born from us, contain pieces of us, but they are separate of us — and greet the world this way.

so in thinking about all of this, i wondered why it is that creative people (more personally, this creative person) tend to fear the creation of their ideas? when i started to think about creativity in the same way that i have come to view motherhood — i was reminded that we truly control so little in our lives. and some of the most successful moments we face are those when we are brave enough to step out of our own way, let go of the invisible leash of control, and just allow the moments to pass through us without resistance. in doing so, we seem to find strength, wisdom, and creative courage.

if we can think of our creative endeavors in the same way as this song, this poem…’as life’s longing for itself’ in the same way as our children, respectfully as beings in and of themselves, wouldn’ they grow and flow so much better than with our ‘hammering away at them, trying to make them bend to what we want?

of course then i start to think, well what about keeping in the form i’m working in, this novel can’t suddenly be poetry or the other way around….or can it? can poetry be inherent in a novel? can a story be in a poem? immediately i think zora neale hurston and homer and say, yes! yes they can!

thanks for the reminder to let our creativity have their own legs to stand or wings to fly.

welcome!

Great to see you! Studio Mothers is the blog community of Miranda Hersey Creativity Coaching. Writer? Artist? Musician? Performer? You’re in the right place. While we primarily focus on the issues that creative mothers encounter, all are welcome.

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